Birth of an Angel
by tygermommy
Summary: The brothers learn the consequences of the trials. There are 3 possible, and one is death. Not a surprise. My take on how it may turn out. Let's see if the writers agree! Angsty!Sam Angsty!Dean. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! Warnings for Dean's language! Own nada, BTW...
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So sorry! I changed the Valerie B. thing correctly to "One Day at a Time," instead of the" Facts of Life." My oops. Thank you doyleshuny!

All seemed as per usual that particular day until there was a knock at the door. Sam and Dean had spent the day researching the needed tools for the next trial, and to no surprise, were making little progress. Since no one had done this before, there was very little lore to go on. The biggest clues the brothers had were each other—both had been there, both had been trapped there, and neither ever wanted to go back.

They made immediate eye contact when there was a knock at the door.

Dean signaled for Sam to stand down while he armed himself before he answered it. When he opened the door, he was shocked to find a small woman with dark hair and brown eyes, looking up at him.

"Hi. You're Dean, right?"

He peeped his head outside, beyond her, and looked around suspiciously. "Who's asking?"

"My name is Marla. Cas sent me."

He frowned and furrowed his brow, hackles still up and on alert. His mossy eyes scanned her again. She was hot with a capital H. She wasn't tall, but she had long brown hair, deep brown eyes and tanned skin. Her face was full and youthful. Dean though she looked kinda like Valerie Bertinelli in her younger, more "One Day at a Time" days. She was well-dressed for someone in her 20's, with jeans, and a tank layered with a sheer overshirt, as well as a white jean jacket and heeled boots. In short, she was Dean's kinda girl…

She stood, scanning him as well. "Really? 'Cas sent me' isn't the password? Wow, he's lamer than I thought. I need to work on that."

He scanned her again, this time looking up and down. He allowed her to walk over the threshold of the door, knowing that evil could not penetrate its walls. When she made it safety across, he followed her to the top landing.

"This is impressive. Sammy, is that you?"

Sam shot Dean a confused look.

She skipped over to him, hugged his head and kissed his hair. "I haven't seen you for…a long time."

He stood up from his chair, feeling awkward beyond awkward with the intrusion, not knowing who this woman was.

"You got tall."

"Excuse me, Marla, but, who are you?" Dean leaned in.

"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. I'm your guardian angel."

"Wait. What?"

"Your guardian angel. Am I speaking Enochian, 'cuz sometimes I do that."

"How did you find us?" Sam asked, guarded but still wanting more information.

"Cas let me know where you were. He can still find you. Maybe because he was the originator of the symbols on your ribs."

I'm sorry, sister, but I ain't buyin' what you're sellin'," Dean challenged, pouring himself a hefty portion of Johnny Walker. "And, if you are his guardian angel, you need to be fired or…demoted—whatever because you have been painfully absent for a long time."

She left out a sigh and looked down.

He handed a rocks glass to Sam with a generous amount of alcohol in his, too.

"It's eleven o'clock in the morning. Breakfast much?" She asked. "Where's mine?"

"Alright. You said Cas sent you. And where is he?" Dean spoke, leaning against the table.

"Yes, he did send me," she nodded. "He wants me to watch over you. I can't tell you where he is because he won't tell me. He's been AWOL for three weeks. He's not traveling on Angel Airways, or else Naomi would be able to find him and -."

"Who in the hell is Naomi?" Dean started. "He said her name when we were in the crypt."

"She's a witch…well, okay not really a witch. She's the angel that pulled Cas from purgatory. She moved her way up the food chain after the revolution in Heaven. She thought she could use Cas as a tool to kill you. She twisted him and manipulated him, and did awful things to him. If he seemed 'off,' that's why."

"Why kill us?" Sam asked again, astutely.

"You know what the demon tablets are for, right? Well, the angel tablets would do the same thing. And she wants them. Sam, you have been chosen to close the gates of Hell, should you choose to continue your mission. Dean, you can close Heaven."

"And lock the angels away," Sam deduced.

"Yep."

"Anyway, he wants me to watch out for ya. He loves you guys so much. He knows you're not well, Sam, and he wants to make sure you're safe. And he wants me to talk to you guys about these trials."

"You mean to talk us out of it." Sam glared at her. _Where was she when I was six months old?_

"I mean to present to you the consequences for yourselves, the world and Heaven. I'm not gonna try to talk you out of it. I'm gonna give you the facts. Then you can do what you want. Don't you call yourselves Team Free Will?"

"Okay, wait. Stop. Back up," Dean interrupted. He was irritated. "If you're his guardian angel, where the hell have you been? Do you realize what's _happened to him_? He's been in Hell. He's been tortured. He saw things that weren't there for a year, and now you pop up? Do you know how many times-."

"I know, Dean. I saw you hugging him tight when you were little and your dad stashed you in a motel room. I saw you chasing him down the hall to change his diaper. I saw you defend him in school and make dinners. I know. To answer your question, I was pulled off your case two days before Sam turned six months old. Two days. And no, I don't know by who or why. What I do know is that you need to be fully aware of what you're facing and I'm here to help you. By the way, I'm your guardian angel, too."

"Like I said-."

"You don't have any venereal diseases, do you? Who do you think that's courtesy of?"

She poured herself a drink.

"Well, neither one of us are on Team Cas right now. He seems like he's on a Team of his own."

"That's too bad. I've known Cas for a millennia. I know his social skill set is, um, a little lacking, but he loves you. When he called me, he was a wreck for what he did to you, Dean. His back is against the wall, and-."

"And what?" Dean pushed.

"And he doesn't want to leave you."

All three took a deep breath and were quiet for a full minute. Then Sam spoke.

"So, what about these trials?"

"Wait. First things first. I need to see what's going on with you. I don't know if I can fix it, but maybe I can find out what it is." She moved closer and Sam sat in the chair he was using when she came in. She pulled over a chair and sat opposite of him, and reached out her right hand to his chest, above his heart. When he flinched, she stopped momentarily. "I won't hurt you, Sam, I promise."

She laid her hand on his ribs, and frowned, concerned. "You're bleeding. Your lungs are bleeding, but it's not cancer or anything. It's a transformation thing. You're chemical makeup is changing. That 's why Cas said it was deeper than the molecular level."

"What does that mean? He's not gonna go all Seth Brundle is he?" Dean asked as he moved closer to his brother.

Sam just stared at this brother incredulously.

"I don't know. It's odd. It's a celestial thing, but I've never seen it before."

Marla kept her hand on Sam's chest, puzzled. Then, she withdrew, and covered her mouth with her hand.

"What? WHAT?" Dean demanded.

She stood up and took a few steps back. She took a breath, and looked at the brothers. "You're turning into an angel."


	2. Chapter 2

Birth of an Angel—Chapter 2

Dean blinked hard and seemed for a moment like he needed to clear his head. "Wait. What?"

"Like I said, I've never seen this before, but at the subatomic level, there are changes in you," Marla explained. "There's something going on where the trials, well, the trial that you completed, are readying you for…celestial—stuff."

Sam looked sick. He rubbed his unshaved cheeks with his hand and looked away, then back at Marla and his brother. "And as I go through these trials?"

"You'll become more angel than human."

Sam rose from his seat and began to pace. "This isn't happening."

Dean just stared for a moment, like he was preparing his body to go into shock, then it turned to anger. "So you mean to tell me, that he and I save the world AGAIN from evil, and demons, and Crowley, and this is what he would get in return? To go full-out douchebag and never have a normal life? Never have a wife, and kids? And grandkids?! This is wrong."

Sam sat back in a chair, apart from both, covered his face and began to weep.

That's when Dean officially lost it. He overturned the heavy wooden table between them without care for where it went or what it smashed. Paper and splinters of wood exploded in the room. He grabbed a nearby oak file cabinet and tipped it over with ease. His face was flushed and he was shaking, and it didn't quell the need for more. He smashed weapons and threw books against the wall. He picked up threw a glass so violently against the bedroom door that, when it shattered, shards flew in the opposite direction and against the opposite wall. All the time he was screaming.

"MOTHER FUCKER! SONOFABITCH! WHY HIM?! WHY NOT ME?! I'M THE ASSHOLE OF THE TWO OF US! I'D FIT RIGHT FUCKING IN! ALL THESE YEARS ALL HE'S WANTED WAS OUTTA THIS! HE DESERVES BETTER THAN THIS SHIT! MOTHER FUCKER! MOTHER FUCKER! MOTHER FUCKER!"

Marla watched quietly as the brothers imploded, and stayed out of Dean's way. To say that he was on the warpath would have been the colossal understatement of the millennia. His rage was palpable. If someone could have torn his heart out and ripped it into a million pieces to say that his brother would be fine, he'd take it. He didn't stop until, in a moment of silence between crashes and smashes, he heard Sam's broken sobs. His anger subsided, and then changed again into grief. His shoulders visibly sunk and his brow curled up. His rage-filled lungs began to hitch at the sight of his little brother so lost and without hope and there wasn't anything he knew he could do about it.

That's when the dam broke for Dean Winchester. He started to weep as well before he even made it to Sam and knelt in front of him on the floor, and scooped him up in the tightest grip he could manage.

The only other time Marla had witnessed a moment like this was when a young mother was protecting her child in the midst of a tornado demolishing their house around them.

She could hear Dean's whispers of love between chokes into his brother's ear. Sam clung to his big brother like he could slip underwater at anytime and Dean was the only life raft he had. To be honest, Marla could feel herself welling up, too, but someone had to be the one under control to stop this whole thing from going to the meat grinder and not working out in _anyone's_ favor.

She walked softly over to the two and placed her hand on Dean's shoulder. He lifted his head, and upon focusing on her, his face hardened again, and he almost pushed her away. He disentangled himself from his brother and stood up. His face menacingly staring her down, jaw clenched and ready to go…

Sam didn't even look up, his eyes remained fixed on the floor. Tears were still sliding from the tip of his nose and onto his jeans. He had one hand wrapped around his mouth and the other was still grasping Dean's hand.

"Unless you have some kind of an escape plan, you need to leave," the older Winchester growled through his teeth. "I don't give a fuck who you are. I'll take care of my brother like I always have. He didn't need a guardian angel. Ever. He needs me. Now get out."

Marla turned to leave. Honestly, she understood. The heavenly host had not been kind to these two. They had been lied to, deceived, left alone to die, cursed, physically sickened, and turned against each other, all at the hands of various seraph. Sure, some of them had been helpful, but there was always an ulterior motive, always another avenue to take, and always using the brothers as _means to an end_ instead of good old-fashioned altruism that humans are so easily duped into believing. She couldn't say that her mission was any different, though. She didn't want to be locked away from humanity for eternity. She honestly loved these beings with all their imperfections and moods and rejections when things didn't go their way. In many ways, they were the more perfect creation of God. At least, when they were mad, they were mad…they didn't have to play a political game with every moment. They could sleep. They could regenerate. They could re-create themselves with a move to a new city. They could love again and again and again, despite being crushed with disappointment and abandonment. She couldn't help every day just watching them and admiring God's creativity…

Sam spoke up, so quietly at first that Dean didn't even hear him, and he didn't even lift this head in an attempt to be heard. "Is there a way out?"

Marla turned around, again amazed at the emergence of hope.

"I don't know. But if there is, we can find it. If you let me, I'll be part of Team Winchester. I can't see this happen to either of you."

Dean, still gripping his brother's hand, remained resistant to the angel's offer. "Sorry, girlie, you're gonna have to earn this one."

Sam didn't argue.


End file.
